Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett continued her cross-country tour as part of pre-inquiry meetings into the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Vancouver on Tuesday.

Bennett kicked off the circuit last week in Thunder Bay, Ont., and has so far scheduled at least four more stops before it is set to wrap up by summer.

The sessions -- which have been designated the "design phase" of the inquiry -- are being held with the victim's families, as well as frontline workers and other aboriginal community organizations.

On Tuesday, Bennett stressed the importance of reaching out to citizens across the country for their input.

"We hope that all Canadians will be part of this really important step forward on reconciliation," she said.

Bennett met with numerous victims' advocates, including several representatives from Vancouver's Memorial March Committee, which was created to honour missing and murdered women from the city's poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside.

The committee has been calling for a national inquiry for decades.

One member of the group, Fay Blaney, emphasized the need for the inquiry to address the issue of violence not only on a local level, but in Canadian society as a whole.

"We experience violence not only in our communities, but we experience violence from the larger population," she said.

Many of the advocates had relatives and friends who had gone missing or been murdered.

"These women had names and identities -- they mean something to us," said Carol Martin, a victim's service worker at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre and member of the committee.

Coola Louis, the women's representative for the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, also met with Bennett and urged the minister to learn from B.C.'s 2012 report by the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.

The report was issued in an effort to address the systemic gaps that allowed serial killer Robert Pickton to target sex workers in the Downtown Eastside.

The inquiry's commissioner, Wally Oppal, made 65 recommendations, including compensation for victims' families and safer transportation along B.C.'s so-called Highway of Tears.

Louis criticized the 2012 inquiry for being too limited in scope and not open to everyone who wanted to participate.

"We don't want to repeat some of the same mistakes," she said.

"And in this pre-inquiry stage, it is easy to slip."

Bennett hopes to complete the pre-inquiry consultation by as early as the beginning of May.

Canadians who can't attend in person can also take part by filling out an online survey.

Advertisements

Latest Canada & World News

A Cambridge, Ont., mother says she was told to stop breastfeeding her daughter at a gym Sunday because her "breast milk could stain the mats." Monica Makey was at Dynamo Gymnastics with her daughter Vayda, who is nearly two years old, for the pair's first "parent and tot" gymnastics class.
Source

In hindsight, it's strange that for years, anyone installing a Facebook app could not only give that app's developer access to their personal information, but the personal information of all their friends. Where your friends lived, worked, and went to school — not to mention their interests and the pages they had liked — were all fair game.
Source

WINNIPEG -- A group that represents defence lawyers says some proposed laws aimed at cracking down on drivers distracted by hand-held electronic devices go too far. Manitoba and Ontario are two provinces planning to let police temporarily suspend the licences of drivers caught using hand-held cellphones and other equipment.
Source

A pod of dolphins has become trapped by sea ice near Heart’s Delight-Islington, Newfoundland -- a small town roughly one-and-a-half hour’s drive from St. John’s. “Ice drove them in,” retired local fisherman Charlie Sooley told NTV on Monday.
Source

Unveiling a long-awaited plan to combat the national scourge of opioid drug addiction, U.S. President Donald Trump called Monday for stiffer penalties for drug traffickers, including the death penalty.
"Toughness is the thing that they most fear," Trump said.
Source

LOS ANGELES -- Charles Manson's cremated remains have been scattered nearly four months after the cult leader died in prison. A funeral was held Saturday following a court battle for the 83-year-old's remains. Pastor Mark Pitcher of the Church of the Nazarene in Porterville, California, says 20 to 25 people attended the funeral.
Source

A North Carolina woman is facing a charge for transporting people into the United States who didn't have permission to be in the country, according to a complaint filed Monday in federal court in Vermont.
The complaint said that just after 2 a.m.
Source

HALIFAX -- A Nova Scotia judge has allowed a Halifax-area father unsupervised parenting time with his child, despite the mother's objections over his "unorthodox beliefs" on white pride and other racial matters. In a written decision, Justice Carole Beaton of the provincial Supreme Court's family division said it's in the six-year-old's best interest to have contact with the father.
Source

The U.S. Supreme Court is keeping in place a revised map of Pennsylvania's congressional districts, turning down a request from Republican leaders in the state Legislature.
The court's order Monday declining to put on hold the revised map comes as incumbents and potential challengers are circulating petitions to get on the May primary ballot.
Source

Police in Tampa, Fla., say they have no reason to believe the fall that killed a Cirque du Soleil aerialist Saturday "is anything except a tragic accident," as their investigation into the death of Yann Arnaud continues this week.
Source